A socio-evolutionary approach to sexual harassment

Abstract

The genesis of this book was simple: a long-time collaborator and I had edited a volume called Leadership and Sexuality: Power, Principles and Processes (Beggan & Allison, 2018). The book combined his academic interest in leadership and heroism and my research interest in human sexuality. One topic was noticeably missing from the book: anything about Harvey Weinstein or the #MeToo movement, or the host of other men who were the subject of sexual harassment scandals in the aftermath of the Harvey Weinstein accusations. The reason for this omission was painfully obvious: the book was written and set into print before the news of the scandals hit the papers. I initially lamented missing the boat on these topics. Then I realized rather than just regret what had not happened, I should get on the next boat. I should start a new project, a book that examined the Harvey Weinstein et al. scandals in the #MeToo era. The purpose of this book is to put forward an interactionist perspective to sexual harassment that integrates utility theory, evolutionary theory, and sexual scripting theory. I present a sexual approach model that uses utility theory to describe a way to think about how men approach women for sex. Because the focus of the model is on explaining men’s sexual harassment of women, I intentionally use gendered pronouns that assume the harasser is male and the target is female. I recognize that other patterns of gender harassment are possible (such as men harassing men or women harassing men); however, the most frequent takes the form of men harassing women. As such, I feel justified in presenting my arguments using what otherwise might be criticized as possessing a heteronormative bias. Utility theory has its origins in economics and rational actor approaches to understanding how people deal with risk (Fishburn, 1970). It suggests that the value of an option is a function of the payoff the option affords and the likelihood of actually obtaining that payoff. Men are more likely to approach the more positively they evaluate the opportunity to have sex with the target person. They are also more likely to approach to the extent that they expect to be successful. Further, I suggest that men do not merely assess likelihood. They also take steps to influence it. In other words, the approach model suggests that men persuade women to have sex with them. The influence tactics men use can be understood in terms of preferred mating strategies that have